ROME (AP) — Italians fed up with the country's lousy postal service may now have found a culprit: Police say they discovered nearly a half-ton of undelivered mail in a rogue postman's garage.

The postal police said the 573-kilogram stash in the Vicenza home of the 56-year-old postman was the biggest seizure of mail ever undertaken in Italy.

The missing mail had been collecting for the past eight years and included utility bills, bank statements, old phone books and political propaganda mailings from the 2010 regional elections.

Police were tipped off when volunteers from a recycling center reported receiving 25 big yellow containers from the postal service, with mail still inside. The postal police say the mail will now be delivered to its rightful owners, a few years late.